In this video series, the crowned Duke of Permaculture, Paul Wheaton, explains how you can garden simpler and more sustainably with permaculture-inspired earthworks.
3 Full Length Digital Films:
- Ponds - holding onto water without a liner
- Hugelkultur - buried wood as an alternative to watering
- Swales - capture and use rainwater runoff
Learn the simple secrets behind easier gardening and less invasive practices, and get your land working for you in this digital set!
Video 1: Sealing a Pond Without a Liner
In this video series, Paul and his workshop students do some critical landscaping to solve a simple problem - too much water runoff. In this movie, you'll learn
- how to clean water naturally by simple pond design elements
- how to create a pond without a liner
- how to build an ecosystem around your pond
It's the plastic-free way to build a pond, and you'll get to see it all unfold right here as the team pulls together to create an oasis from a destructive deluge of rainwater runoff.
Video 2: Hugelkultur and Terracing
In this video, food production is discussed - how do we use all of that saved water to create a productive garden?
Hugelkultur is soil on wood - a gardening practice that uses piles of wood within garden beds to act as both a nutrient booster and sponge, holding onto water and slowly releasing it to the plants.
In this video, Paul explains:
- what types of wood to use in hugelkultur
- why lasagna gardening can cause problems
- how to create microclimates favorable to various plants
- how to incorporate a sun scoop into a hugel bed
There is so much to learn in this one - hugelkultur will forever change the way you garden, and paints a beautiful picture of how permaculture creates a system where both planters and plants just don't have to work as hard!
Video 3: Ditches and Swales
A swale is a simple concept really - it's just a flat ditch, one that is designed to hold onto and gradually disperse water, rather than divert it.
In this video, Paul shows the workshop participants how swales can be used to hold onto precious water, without overwhelming a landscape. In this video, the team connects a finger on the pond to a swale, where the land can act to hold onto any excess.
You can use a swale to hold onto moisture in an area, and keep other parts of your property from flooding, acting like a sponge to slowly release water into the landscape. You'll also get a demonstration is using laser levels - a handy tool in evaluating slopes and inclines in a project like this.
